One of the interesting technologies presently being developed is focused on combining the Internet or World Wide Web with the standard television set, video cassette recorder ("VCR") and other home and office electronic products. Surveys show that almost 90% of U.S. homes have television sets, and most homes have more than one set. Various companies have developed and are selling products to create Internet sites that are fully compatible with the technology; these sites will allow customers full access to the Internet via their television set. It has been observed that the challenge to universal acceptance of the World Wide Web is, in fact, the television set (TV).
To utilize the emerging Web-to-TV technology, standard computer keyboards having wires have been used. Keyboards have long been popular as PC (personal computer) accessories such as for this application. Companies which offer Internet access, using the user's TV as the display device, usually offer either corded or cordless keyboards. A user can use the keyboard for various Internet functions including the sending of e-mail (electronic mail). However, for a variety of reasons, infrared (IR) wireless keyboards which have a range of up to 30 feet appear to be the preferred structure for interfacing with a home TV. Thus, a user merely needs a wireless keyboard, the TV, a phone line, and the Internet access service or Internet terminal to conveniently utilize this new technology. It has been found that a desirable feature for the user of a cordless keyboard is to be able to turn on his TV, VCR or cable box, make adjustments to the volume, and make adjustments to other functions thereof, directly from the keyboard without having to set the keyboard down and pick up the TV remote control.
Presently, in order for a keyboard manufacturer to offer this capability, the manufacturer has to contract with an IR database owner to obtain an IR code library for TV control, modify his firmware and/or hardware inside the keyboard to support the TV control signal transmission, and either add keys to the keyboard or assign additional functions to the existing keyset to allow the user to access these functions. This is time consuming, inefficient and presents a range of technical problems. The present invention addresses the problems outlined above by providing a self-contained module that is available as a standard component and is mountable on a standard keyboard housing with only minimal changes, if any, to the plastic tooling of the housing.